Isle of Barra snail boards the slow boat to preservation

The Isle of Barra snail survives on the calcium-rich machair around the sand dunes of the Outer Hebridean islandTimes photographer James Glossop

Progress may have gone at a snail’s pace, but a tiny wild Scottish mollusc has finally been recognised by an elite food organisation to protect it from extinction.

The Isle of Barra snail survives on the calcium-rich machair around the sand dunes of the most southerly inhabited Outer Hebridean island. Now the delicacy has joined the likes of the Bamberger Hörnchen potato, and the Kentish cobnut on the Ark of Taste, the international catalogue of endangered heritage foods.

The catalogue was created by Slow Food International to draw attention to the impact on the farming environments of rare foods around the world and to encourage their cultivation for human consumption.

The Ark of Taste differs from the protected geographical indication system, which is run by…

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